Men's Water Polo to Face Stiff Competition at ECAC Championships

Weekend Festivities: The Harvard men’s water polo team travels to
Princeton, N.J., for the second-straight weekend to compete in the
ECAC Championships. In its first game, the Crimson will take on No.
8 seed George Washington Sept. 18 at 9:15 p.m. The two teams met
last weekend at the Princeton Invitational with the Crimson earning
a 12-7 win. The winner of this contest will take on Navy Sept. 19
at 11:30 a.m. Harvard is guaranteed at least three games throughout
the weekend.

The More, the Merrier: The 2009 ECAC Championships marks the first year with a
field of 10 teams. Coaches voted to expand the field from eight to
10 at the annual meeting. Teams are seeded based on their finish at
the 2008 ECAC Championships or the Northern and Southern Division
Championships.

About Harvard: Harvard enters the weekend as the No. 9 seed in the
tournament, carrying a 2-6 record. Junior co-captain Bret Voith
paces the Crimson with 12 goals while senior co-captain Egen
Atkinson and junior Alex Thompson are also in double figures in
goals with 10. Defensively, senior Nikhil Balaraman has made 26
saves and sophomore Alexandre Popp has 27 saves to his credit this
season. The Crimson boasts the Northern Division Rookie of the
Week, Max Eliot, who scored four goals last weekend at the
Princeton Invitational.

Scouting the Field: The nine other participating institutions, by seed, are
Navy, Princeton, Brown, Bucknell, Johns Hopkins, MIT, Fordham,
George Washington and Connecticut College. Harvard has faced four
of the other teams competing: George Washington, Princeton, Fordham
and, most recently, MIT.

Navy boasts a 6-4 record with wins over UC San Diego, Mercyhurst
and Johns Hopkins. Princeton comes in carrying a 1-3 record with
its only win coming against the Crimson. The Tigers have dropped
close games to Brown and Santa Clara. Brown enters the weekend with
a 5-2 record with victories over Redlands, Bucknell and Princeton.
Bucknell arrives in Princeton, N.J. with a 4-4 record, including
wins over Fordham, MIT and Iona. George Washington boasts a 2-7
record by beating Mercyhurst and Queens.

Last Time Out: The Crimson earned a 9-6 victory over the Engineers of MIT
in the home opener. Bret Voith, Alex Thompson and Egen Atkinson
each found the back of the net twice. Jeff Lee, Luka Babic and Evan
Zepfel all tallied a goal to round out the scoring. Between the
pipes, net minder Nikhil Balaraman played solid defense, making
nine saves on the night.

Up Next: Harvard will travel to New York to take on Queens in a
Collegiate Water Polo Association match-up Sept. 26. The game is
slated to begin at 5:00 pm.